Argentina: Yet Another Corruption Scandal

Argentina
has been gripped by reports of alleged corruption under the previous Kirchner
administrations. The extent and scale of the allegations made and the number of
prominent businessmen who have sought plea bargains have surprised even the
most cynical commentators.

The scandal
started in August with La Nacion’s publication of eight notebooks kept by Oscar
Centeno, a driver for Roberto Baratta, deputy Minister for Planning and Public
Works under the Kirchners (and a close adviser to both Nestor and Cristina).
These notebooks meticulously recorded the journeys to prominent businessmen and
the amounts received from them in cash between 2005 and 2015.

Investigations
are being pursued by Federal Judge, Claudio Bonadio. So far, some 26 people
have been arrested: 15 senior businessmen and 2 government officials have
sought plea bargains under the 2016 ‘ley de arrepentido’ (law of repentance).
One such – Aldo Roggio, head of Metrovia and Urquiza railways – admitted, for
example, that he paid 5% of the government subsidies received back to the
Kirchners.

Cristina de
Kirchner is reportedly implicated in all this. She was summoned to appear
before the court in mid-August but declined to answer questions, claiming that
the allegations were politically motivated and false. She joined her colleague
Senators in allowing her immunity to be lifted sufficiently to permit the search
of three of her homes, since she claimed that there was nothing to hide. But
she is otherwise protected from prosecution by virtue of her immunity as a
Senator – and with a Peronist majority, it is unlikely that the Senate would
remove her immunity.

That said
her popularity ratings dipped to 31% (below Macri’s 39%) – and Macri may well
recognise that Cristina is better suspected of gross corruption than imprisoned
for it. Her leadership of the Peronist movement is still highly divisive,
giving Macri a possible advantage in the run-up to the Presidential elections
on 27 October 2019, despite his economic woes. President Macri was elected in
December 2015 in part for a promise to rid Argentina of corruption. So far, he
has been hailed for his strong stance on such matters.

In separate
corruption cases, Vice-President Amado Boudou (2011-15) was jailed for nearly 6
years and banned for life from elective office for illicit enrichment (he had
been Economics Minister in Cristina’s administration in 2009 -11). Former
Planning Minister, Julio de Vido, was jailed in 2017 for taking bribes in
return for awarding public contracts during Cristina’s Presidency. So too was
his deputy, José Lopez, who was caught red-handed throwing bags containing $9m
in cash and valuables into a convent; he has since been released under a plea
bargain for co-operating with the prosecution in the current cases.

None of this
is as bad as in Brazil, where former President Lula da Silva was jailed for
taking bribes amounting to billions of dollars. But if the current prosecutions
are successful, it will shine a poor light on the level of corruption in
Argentina under the Kirchners.